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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

·feist· said:
I can't possibly recommend Microcenter enough when it comes to CPU prices. Until I find out that their chips are powered by the souls of children, they'll be my default option.
Yeah, that is an insane deal. I'm impressed they've kept it going this long, but as someone without a Microcenter nearby it hurts to see it it keep popping up. :lol

The one concession for those of us without one nearby (or nearby friends/relatives) is that it's not too hard to find someone flipping those CPUs on eBay for less than the retail price.
 
·feist· said:
AkIRA_22, nice build. It would be even better if you can tidy up the cabling a bit. I still think about buying an Antec Mini P180 for a mATX htpc, but that will have to wait. I nearly pulled the trigger on one when Newegg had the white version on sale for $50 recently.

Cheers mate. that was an early shot, the cabling has been dealt with, they all go behind the motherboard tray, except the ATX power in the top left (the cable wasn't long enough... arse).

I would advise against the i7-860. You should be able to pick up a X58 mobo for the same price as a decent 1156. The 860 isn't the same value proposition as the i5-750, hyper threading isn't that important. The X58 gives much more flexibility with things such as triple channel memory, dual X16 PCI-e lanes, QPI etc.

For an 1156 chip you just can't go past the 750. The only thing the 860 has over it is HT, and it isn't worth 100 bucks IMO.
 
Unfortunately, the closest Microcenter is in Philadelphia, 3 and a half hours away and I don't have any friends or family there either.

I just placed the order. I used Bing Cashback for the video card and processor, so that saved me $61.50. I'm sure I'll get over this buyers remorse once it's up and running.


I also just realized, I didn't order a keyboard or mouse... ugh...
 
I've been eying XFX's 5770 on Newegg, and it just got a 10$ savings, making it 169$ (CAD). Should I bite now, or wait until later when it drops even more? I'm not in any hurry to replace my 8800GT, but the 5770 is already at a killer price for what's looking like the best card for my price range.
 
rohlfinator said:
Yeah, that is an insane deal. I'm impressed they've kept it going this long, but as someone without a Microcenter nearby it hurts to see it it keep popping up. :lol

The one concession for those of us without one nearby (or nearby friends/relatives) is that it's not too hard to find someone flipping those CPUs on eBay for less than the retail price.
I feel the same way when I come across all of those crazy in-store deals from Fry's since I'm nowhere near a location. Then again, I live fairly close to a range of Targets, Sears, Best Buys, etc. and I never find any of those gaming and tech clearance specials that everyone else seems to stumble upon.


Felix Lighter said:
Unfortunately, the closest Microcenter is in Philadelphia, 3 and a half hours away and I don't have any friends or family there either.

I just placed the order. I used Bing Cashback for the video card and processor, so that saved me $61.50. I'm sure I'll get over this buyers remorse once it's up and running.
Well, that sucks. Good thing you have the $60 cashback coming.


Felix Lighter said:
I also just realized, I didn't order a keyboard or mouse... ugh...
If you don't have an extra kb/m, you could always pick up one of those $25-30 combos from Costco/Target/BB/Walmart in a pinch. At least until to decide to upgrade. Might come in handy as an emergency kb/m set later on.
 
AkIRA_22 said:
Cheers mate. that was an early shot, the cabling has been dealt with, they all go behind the motherboard tray, except the ATX power in the top left (the cable wasn't long enough... arse).
Extension cables:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...34_186&zenid=f977db3b81e1a29461fb32162cb4f1d9

You could probably find it for cheaper elsewhere or, perhaps, locally in your country.


AkIRA_22 said:
I would advise against the i7-860. You should be able to pick up a X58 mobo for the same price as a decent 1156. The 860 isn't the same value proposition as the i5-750, hyper threading isn't that important. The X58 gives much more flexibility with things such as triple channel memory, dual X16 PCI-e lanes, QPI etc.

For an 1156 chip you just can't go past the 750. The only thing the 860 has over it is HT, and it isn't worth 100 bucks IMO.
Yeah, I'd almost certainly be going with a 1366 choice. Overall, I really wish Intel would have handled the Core i3/i5/i7 differently. Things are unnecessarily convoluted and I don't like the lack of a clear upgrade path.
 
·feist· said:
Extension cables:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...34_186&zenid=f977db3b81e1a29461fb32162cb4f1d9

You could probably find it for cheaper elsewhere or, perhaps, locally in your country.


Yeah, I'd almost certainly be going with a 1366 choice. Overall, I really wish Intel would have handled the Core i3/i5/i7 differently. Things are unnecessarily convoluted and I don't like the lack of a clear upgrade path.

I didn't even think of extension cables, seems so obvious. I'll have a hunt for a supplier in Australia.

Yeah the whole socket/feature situation has been ballsed up hard by intel. They should have called the 800 series i7's, i5's due to the socket not the features.

To go from one of the most amazingly long lasting sockets (775) to two sockets that will be lucky to last 2-3 years is bad. with the rumoured 1155 and 2011 sockets on their way you have to wonder who is making the calls at Intel. Especially when you have new AMD chips going into AM2+ boards that are years old.

But for a future resistant chip, you can't go past the 1366. If only they would make them 35nm, we could OC those sons-a-bitches like no ones business.
 
Hey guys, i have a technical issue that i hope to resolve. My video card has been artifacting sometimes and i have no idea if its the card itself or if it could be the psu not having enough juice for it.
Looks like this when i run furmark to put it under lots of stress, it does never get to look that horrible during gaming, but there is definitely some artifacting going on:

2zrgnz9.jpg


Its a radeon 4870 that i bought last year, it should be under warranty but thats gonna be a pain in the ass to deal with. Im thinking about getting a new psu (the one i have came with my case, an Antec Sonata III 500. Im mostly a console gamer these days so im not desperate, but i figure its about time to get to the bottom of this thing.
 
devilchicken said:
Hey guys, i have a technical issue that i hope to resolve. My video card has been artifacting sometimes and i have no idea if its the card itself or if it could be the psu not having enough juice for it.
Looks like this when i run furmark to put it under lots of stress, it does never get to look that horrible during gaming, but there is definitely some artifacting going on:

[IG]http://i42.tinypic.com/2zrgnz9.jpg[/IMG]

Its a radeon 4870 that i bought last year, it should be under warranty but thats gonna be a pain in the ass to deal with. Im thinking about getting a new psu (the one i have came with my case, an Antec Sonata III 500. Im mostly a console gamer these days so im not desperate, but i figure its about time to get to the bottom of this thing.
Did you overclocked the card?
 
Vic said:
Did you overclocked the card?
Nope, and overdrive wasnt enabled but i did reset the values to default and it seems to be stable for now. Which is rather annoying because i swear i did that before to no avail.
If a while ago i somehow i moved the clocks on it without realizing and all was needed was a reset to default, I will /facepalm for the next few months.
 
Ok guys, bit of a problem here, need some help/advice:

I bought a new aftermarket cooler (Coolermaster TX3) for my CPU because the stock AM3 cooler sounds like a fricking jet engine when I'm playing games. Assembed the new cooler ok, open my case, everythings fine and I've got a grin on my face because I'm about to make my PC whisper quiet, then...

I can't remove the fucking stock cooler from the CPU seating. It just wont come off. I unclipped the brackets, gave it a tug, and even a little twist for good measure but it just doesn't want to come off :(. Its like its just stuck there laughing at me.

I don't want to break anything either so I gave up after about 5 minutes of trying... I got scared. So what should I do?

Also, I heard I'm meant to clean off the old thermal grease before putting the new stuff on. What should I use to do that? (If I even manage to ever get that far that is...)
 
Alright, this thread is helping me make moves. Now that I have purchased an i7-930, I just need to finalize the rest of my system!

Here is what I'm looking at in terms of motherboards, any advice here really can help.
Gigabyte - $119.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128425

ASRock - $189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157189

I won't be taking full advantage of the ASRock initially anyway, which is why I'm considering the Gigabyte, but I read on another forum that Gigabyte mobo's are unreliable.

The other thing I need to decide before moving on is what graphics card to get. Ideally I'd like to spend at max around $250 on it, but I'm not entirely sure how powerful of a card I really need.

This ATI Radeon 4870 is $133 after a coupon:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...550055-1225267-u0t2009768f9fp0c0s441#Overview

Any suggestions as far as what video card I should be going for?
 
don't want to break anything either so I gave up after about 5 minutes of trying... I got scared. So what should I do?

Also, I heard I'm meant to clean off the old thermal grease before putting the new stuff on. What should I use to do that? (If I even manage to ever get that far that is...)

You might want to stress your cpu right before you try and remove the heatsink; that should warm up the thermal grease a bit and make it easier to get off.

To clean it I always use coffee filters (they don't leave fibers) and a high % isopropyl rubbing alcohol.

------

I think that my 4890 may have gone kaput (i'm still fiddling with it now, but everytime I stress it it fails (the screen goes all grey and full of vertical lines). I had left it on all night, and I woke to discover that some of my passive heatsinks (for the voltage converter or MOSFET, not the VRAM) had fallen off.

Anyway, since I voided my warranty by changing the cooler (and misplacing some of the original cooler's parts) what should I be looking at in terms of replacements? I was really hoping to last until the next wave of cards, so I don't think I want to spend more than 200; hopefully I'll be able to get mine working again.
 
Scythesurge said:
Alright, this thread is helping me make moves. Now that I have purchased an i7-930, I just need to finalize the rest of my system!

Here is what I'm looking at in terms of motherboards, any advice here really can help.
Gigabyte - $119.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128425

ASRock - $189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157189

I won't be taking full advantage of the ASRock initially anyway, which is why I'm considering the Gigabyte, but I read on another forum that Gigabyte mobo's are unreliable.

The other thing I need to decide before moving on is what graphics card to get. Ideally I'd like to spend at max around $250 on it, but I'm not entirely sure how powerful of a card I really need.

This ATI Radeon 4870 is $133 after a coupon:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...550055-1225267-u0t2009768f9fp0c0s441#Overview

Any suggestions as far as what video card I should be going for?

The gigabyte board is socket 1156 and the i7 930 is socket 1366 so that board won't work.

So I would go with the Asrock board (review are giving it the nod), and this card 4890 ($199). 4870 is showing its age, already IMO and a 4890 going to be faster then a 5770.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150438&cm_re=4890-_-14-150-438-_-Product

If you can push a 5850 I would push for it though.
 
Ok new PC up and running, Phenom II x4 965 BE with a 5850 :D

However I have a problem with running flash movies on sites like youtube etc is that even though I have enabled the overscan via the CCC I still get the black boarder around everything and nothing I do seems to get rid of it. Anyone got any solutions?
 
Scythesurge said:
Do you think this would be too much to spend on a 5850?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121370

This is shaping up to be a $1300 machine, which I'm ok with. I just don't want to overspend if I could avoid it!

I think so, 5850s should be around $300. These 5850 and GTX 480 ($500+) prices are bit crazy right now, the GTX 470 ($350) or 5870 ($380) seem better priced imo.

For another $20 from your link, you are at $350 which gets you a GTX 470, and for another $30 after that you're at a 5870 prices.

I guess you should just decide from benches what you feel you need, a 5870 > GTX 470 > 5850, but nVidia's obviously got the best drivers, though I personally have no real complaints w/ my 5870's drivers.
 
Scythesurge said:
Do you think this would be too much to spend on a 5850?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121370

This is shaping up to be a $1300 machine, which I'm ok with. I just don't want to overspend if I could avoid it!

You will get off like $10 cheaper doing this one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121375

Is this machine for gaming?

Minsc said:
I think so, 5850s should be around $300. These 5850 and GTX 480 ($500+) prices are bit crazy right now, the GTX 470 ($350) or 5870 ($380) seem better priced imo.

For another $20 from your link, you are at $350 which gets you a GTX 470, and for another $30 after that you're at a 5870 prices.

I guess you should just decide from benches what you feel you need, a 5870 > GTX 470 > 5850, but nVidia's obviously got the best drivers, though I personally have no real complaints w/ my 5870's drivers.


He can OC the 5850 to way beyond 5870 stock levels and smoke a GTX 470, no need to go higher in terms of cost (originally want to spend max of $250).
 
ChronicleX said:
Ok new PC up and running, Phenom II x4 965 BE with a 5850 :D

However I have a problem with running flash movies on sites like youtube etc is that even though I have enabled the overscan via the CCC I still get the black boarder around everything and nothing I do seems to get rid of it. Anyone got any solutions?

scaling options.png


I'm not a fan of it, have you tried using the scaling options?

My HDTV has a dot by dot setting for 1:1 mapping, and I leave it with 0% as it looks the sharpest and fills the screen perfectly. Sounds more like your HDTV than driver settings to me.
 
Where the hell are all the good PSU/case deals on Newegg? I can't find a single combo deal on any of the cases and PSUs I prefer. They vanished like the Roanokes. How long do you figure until Newegg has new combos for this month?
 
My latest upgrades just arrived today which will replace my current EVGA GTX 260
0505161650.jpeg


Next I need to buy a better CPU cooler so I can attempt for higher OC, Only reason I havent tried any higher is temps are a bit high, It seems the Corsair H50 is popular? Or what are other i7 users using?

Current:
i7 920 @ 3.36ghz (stock cooler / 1.2v vcore)
6gb DDR3 1600 Corsair
EVGA GTX 480
Win 7 64bit Ultimate
 
Anyone that doesn't mind refurbished products and needs a new case should look at Cooler Masters site. Most of the refurbished cases (like the awesome 690) are about half off retail, and with code "cinco de mayo" you get free shipping if its over $50
Link to 690 (which is $39.99)
 
Well my 9800GTX which I bought when it was brand new bit the dust the other day. So I ordered a 5770. Thought about it for a couple days and said fuck it. I am upgrading the entire rig (outside of HDD, PSU and Case, those are all more than fine)

Ordering tonight barring an awesome sale on Ncix.

G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL Ripjaws PC3-12800 4GB
ASUS M4A89TD Pro AM3 DDR3 AMD 890FX
Gigabyte 5770 1gb (for crossfire)
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T BE

Went Intel/Nvidia with my last rig, going to go Ati/AMD with this one.
 
Minsc said:
I'm not a fan of it, have you tried using the scaling options?

My HDTV has a dot by dot setting for 1:1 mapping, and I leave it with 0% as it looks the sharpest and fills the screen perfectly. Sounds more like your HDTV than driver settings to me.


yeah I did that overscan thing and got nothing. However after you mentioned the dot setting I checked that and set it to full range and tada problem fixed :D Cheers
 
Okay, need some words of wisdom, GAF.

I'm looking to upgrade (though it's pretty much a straight rebuild, except for a few pieces) my rig. My aim is high-quality parts without going overboard ($1000 i7, I'm looking at you).

GPU: EVGA GTX 470. My reasons for choosing this card are as follows: DirectX11 support, since that seems like it's going to be a really big thing going down the line. Secondly, I do like some of the extra doodads and features nVidia offers, and I dream of seeing Just Cause 2 with everything maxed.

Monitor: 25'' Monitor. This monitor seems to have a great price and statistics compared to other 24''/25'' monitors. I'm a little wary of the brand, but the current reviews seem solid and it's got a 3-year warranty. Plus, everything will seem HUGE compared to my crappy 17''. :lol

CPU: 2.8GHz Core i7. Latest line of CPUs. Good clock speed.

MoBo: ASRock. I saw this one mentioned in the thread just this morning, and it looks great. I don't have a ton of things to hook up, and the build quality seems solid.

RAM: This is the one thing I don't have a very good idea about. Not very up-to-speed on how the timings work. Anyone have some good suggestions for 4-6GB DDR3?

----------
So, PC-GAF, if you've got any ideas that fit my line of logic that might save me money or get me more performance, I'd love to hear it. I was also considering buying it bit by bit (GPU first, then monitor, then CPU/MoBo/RAM). Are there any annual sales NewEgg/anywhere else does that I should be holding out for, or are price drops unlikely for most of the parts I've posted anytime soon?
 
AkIRA_22 said:
For an 1156 chip you just can't go past the 750. The only thing the 860 has over it is HT, and it isn't worth 100 bucks IMO.
I dunno, the 860 still has it's place I think. With eBay/Bing Cashback you can sometimes find them for more like $230 (or with Microcenter you can get them for $200). And it has its perks over the 920/930... I think it outperforms them in a lot of cases at stock settings due to better TurboBoost, and it's a little easier on the power consumption.

It's not as nice of a value as the 750, and it's not worth an extra $100, but I don't think it's too bad of a value if you can get it at a bit of a discount.

ChronicleX said:
However I have a problem with running flash movies on sites like youtube etc is that even though I have enabled the overscan via the CCC I still get the black boarder around everything and nothing I do seems to get rid of it. Anyone got any solutions?
You have to set the overscan settings for every resolution and refresh rate your monitor might use. My guess is that YouTube is bumping your monitor down to 30Hz or something else that you haven't adjusted the settings for.

It's kind of a dumb setup on AMD's part... I don't know why you would want overscan at 60Hz but not at any other framerate.

Edit: nvm, you got it fixed. :lol
 
JRW said:
My latest upgrades just arrived today which will replace my current EVGA GTX 260

Next I need to buy a better CPU cooler so I can attempt for higher OC, Only reason I havent tried any higher is temps are a bit high, It seems the Corsair H50 is popular? Or what are other i7 users using?

Current:
i7 920 @ 3.36ghz (stock cooler / 1.2v vcore)
6gb DDR3 1600 Corsair
EVGA GTX 480
Win 7 64bit Ultimate


well having just bought a i7-930 and Corsair H50 a week ago I can say the H50 is amazing. quiet, efficient, the two major factors in cooling. you will OC well with it. I have a modest 3.7 on my 930, I will slowly go higher. it can go above 4GHz in a breeze. of course it depends on your individual chip. I had a Q6600 that just didn't want to go above 3.3GHz.

I have heard good things about the Titan Fenrir, it is 'the best' air cooler on the market. All I know is bit-tech.net have consistently had it in their builds.
 
rohlfinator said:
Edit: nvm, you got it fixed. :lol

Upon further inspection I have not. It fixed youtube but all the new stuff on blimp.tv still has the black boarder for some weird reason. But progress is progress, desktop + youtube down just everything else togo :lol

so yeah, still need some help.
 
RocketDarkness said:
Okay, need some words of wisdom, GAF.

I'm looking to upgrade (though it's pretty much a straight rebuild, except for a few pieces) my rig. My aim is high-quality parts without going overboard ($1000 i7, I'm looking at you).

GPU: EVGA GTX 470. My reasons for choosing this card are as follows: DirectX11 support, since that seems like it's going to be a really big thing going down the line. Secondly, I do like some of the extra doodads and features nVidia offers, and I dream of seeing Just Cause 2 with everything maxed.

Monitor: 25'' Monitor. This monitor seems to have a great price and statistics compared to other 24''/25'' monitors. I'm a little wary of the brand, but the current reviews seem solid and it's got a 3-year warranty. Plus, everything will seem HUGE compared to my crappy 17''. :lol

CPU: 2.8GHz Core i7. Latest line of CPUs. Good clock speed.

MoBo: ASRock. I saw this one mentioned in the thread just this morning, and it looks great. I don't have a ton of things to hook up, and the build quality seems solid.

RAM: This is the one thing I don't have a very good idea about. Not very up-to-speed on how the timings work. Anyone have some good suggestions for 4-6GB DDR3?

----------
So, PC-GAF, if you've got any ideas that fit my line of logic that might save me money or get me more performance, I'd love to hear it. I was also considering buying it bit by bit (GPU first, then monitor, then CPU/MoBo/RAM). Are there any annual sales NewEgg/anywhere else does that I should be holding out for, or are price drops unlikely for most of the parts I've posted anytime soon?


Is that under a grand? if it is well done. Man I wish Australian prices matched those you have in the US, our dollars are nearly even yet we pay and extra 20-30%. Fucking Tax.

Any way to get the mythical 1000 mark I think 4GB of 1600 will do for now. you can just buy another 2GB in a couple of months. The benefits are there for the triple channel, but if you're on a budget then the price/performance proposition isn't enormous. 4GB will do for 99% of computing and gaming. Any more than 6GB is a cock swinging contest, unless you work for Pixar.

Recommendations wise, any RAM with a modest heat spreader will to. Dominator is over kill IMO. (Prices in Australian Dollars) A-Data do decent memory, however I bought this corsair. middle of the road stuff is fine, otherwise you pay through the nose for a few fins or aluminium.

hope this helps.
 
ChronicleX said:
Upon further inspection I have not. It fixed youtube but all the new stuff on blimp.tv still has the black boarder for some weird reason. But progress is progress, desktop + youtube down just everything else togo :lol

so yeah, still need some help.

Did you enable GPU scaling? That should keep it from changing the external resolution and keep your HDTV always at 1080p 60hz, like it should be. I really don't understand how youtube could be fullscreen but not blimp.tv, I mean don't they just scale the video to the 1080 width? It's not like they're switching desktop resolutions or anything right?
 
Minsc said:
Did you enable GPU scaling? That should keep it from changing the external resolution and keep your HDTV always at 1080p 60hz, like it should be. I really don't understand how youtube could be fullscreen but not blimp.tv, I mean don't they just scale the video to the 1080 width? It's not like they're switching desktop resolutions or anything right?

It is weird. Some of the older blimp videos are fine but really new ones have the black boarder around it. The GPU scaling is perma on and cannot be turned off (always set to scale to fullscreen) if I lower the res I can enabled/disable/alter it but doing that has done nothing. I have enabled / disabled the ITC processing or watever that is and that has done nothing. same with LCD overdrive ETC.

I'll give an example.

This is Fullscreen no black boarders. but this one here has them for some strange reason.
 
AkIRA_22 said:
Is that under a grand? if it is well done. Man I wish Australian prices matched those you have in the US, our dollars are nearly even yet we pay and extra 20-30%. Fucking Tax.

Any way to get the mythical 1000 mark I think 4GB of 1600 will do for now. you can just buy another 2GB in a couple of months. The benefits are there for the triple channel, but if you're on a budget then the price/performance proposition isn't enormous. 4GB will do for 99% of computing and gaming. Any more than 6GB is a cock swinging contest, unless you work for Pixar.

Recommendations wise, any RAM with a modest heat spreader will to. Dominator is over kill IMO. (Prices in Australian Dollars) A-Data do decent memory, however I bought this corsair. middle of the road stuff is fine, otherwise you pay through the nose for a few fins or aluminium.

hope this helps.
All of it combined, with tax, is probably going to be around $1300. Painful, but it'll serve me well for three or four years, so I can't complain too much. Plus I'm a programmer, so I need a sexy CPU to uh...save time on compiling. Yes. Of course.

I noticed the motherboard lists "triple-channel" as the RAM input type. Does that mean it also supports dual-channel, or am I required to go with 3x 2GB RAM?
 
ChronicleX said:
It is weird. Some of the older blimp videos are fine but really new ones have the black boarder around it. The GPU scaling is perma on and cannot be turned off (always set to scale to fullscreen) if I lower the res I can enabled/disable/alter it but doing that has done nothing. I have enabled / disabled the ITC processing or watever that is and that has done nothing. same with LCD overdrive ETC.

I'll give an example.

This is Fullscreen no black boarders. but this one here has them for some strange reason.

The second video has black borders encoded in to it. They're supposed to be there.
 
Minsc said:
The second video has black borders encoded in to it. They're supposed to be there.

well why the smeg is that? (at least it explains alot). At least now I can stop tearing my hair up over this :lol
 
RocketDarkness said:
All of it combined, with tax, is probably going to be around $1300. Painful, but it'll serve me well for three or four years, so I can't complain too much. Plus I'm a programmer, so I need a sexy CPU to uh...save time on compiling. Yes. Of course.

justification.. do it anyway you can.

RocketDarkness said:
I noticed the motherboard lists "triple-channel" as the RAM input type. Does that mean it also supports dual-channel, or am I required to go with 3x 2GB RAM?

You can put 4GB in using just two slots. that's what I love about X58, flexibility.
 
AkIRA_22 said:
justification.. do it anyway you can.



You can put 4GB in using just two slots. that's what I love about X58, flexibility.
Ah, perfect. 6GB is really not necessary for me right now, but if I had to choose between 3 and 6, I'd have had to go with 6. That'll save me a good $50 or so, thanks. =)
 
I'm looking for some keyboard suggestions. I've been pretty much using a laptop for everything for the last year or so and I find I like the flatter shorter keys. Is there any quality keyboards with short flat laptop type keys?
 
Felix Lighter said:
I'm looking for some keyboard suggestions. I've been pretty much using a laptop for everything for the last year or so and I find I like the flatter shorter keys. Is there any quality keyboards with short flat laptop type keys?
I've been kind of considering getting an Enermax Aurora Premium after reading this review.
 
JRW said:
My latest upgrades just arrived today which will replace my current EVGA GTX 260
0505161650.jpeg


Next I need to buy a better CPU cooler so I can attempt for higher OC, Only reason I havent tried any higher is temps are a bit high, It seems the Corsair H50 is popular? Or what are other i7 users using?

Current:
i7 920 @ 3.36ghz (stock cooler / 1.2v vcore)
6gb DDR3 1600 Corsair
EVGA GTX 480
Win 7 64bit Ultimate

My ex-lovers eVGA! Nice work sir.
 
im looking to upgrade from a gtx60, i want to get a 5870, is there a consensus pick for top pick for ati cards, i always liked evga for nvidia cards, any brand to avoid in particular?
 
yacobod said:
im looking to upgrade from a gtx60, i want to get a 5870, is there a consensus pick for top pick for ati cards, i always liked evga for nvidia cards, any brand to avoid in particular?

Surprising you aren't upgrading to a 470/480 from from a 260. A 480's a little steep right now, but any brand should be fine for the 5870, I've been told by someone here the XFX runs louder than average though.
 
Hey I've been having crashes to desktop recently with TF2, so I reinstalled it, updated my drivers etc. but it's still been freezing every now and then.
But just in the last hour I've had the video go black for a few seconds before coming back on. My sounds/shooting input is still running away so the game hasn't frozen.

Because it happened quite a few times I'm concerned it may be my video card dying :(
does that sound like a memory error or something?

I'm running a 4850 with a 3.0 dual core, 4gb ram, Win764 and nothing has been overclocked. My room is quite cool, so it's shouldn't be a general heat issue.

It seems like my video card is dying, but I'd like a second opinion before I look into RMAing it.
Cheers
 
Okay, you crazy kids win. I got an email from Dell saying my $2600 Alienware was delayed, and they asked me if I wished to cancel. I emailed them and said yes.

Now what do I do? :(
 
John Harker said:
Okay, you crazy kids win. I got an email from Dell saying my $2600 Alienware was delayed, and they asked me if I wished to cancel. I emailed them and said yes.

Now what do I do? :(

desktop+netbook combo!
 
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